Neha Patil (Editor)

WOWIO

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Type
  
Public

Key people
  
Brian Altounian

Founder
  
William Lidwell

Industry
  
Books, Comics

Products
  
E-books

Founded
  
August 2006

Services
  
Publishing, Merchandising

Owner
  
Brian Altounian Alliance Acquisitions, LLC

Stock price
  
WWIO (OTCMKTS) US$ 0.00 0.00 (0.00%)4 Apr, 4:00 PM GMT-4 - Disclaimer

Headquarters
  
West Hollywood, California, United States

Subsidiaries
  
Carthay Circle Publishing, Inc, WEvolt, DrunkDuck.com

10 3 14 smallcapvoice interview with wowio inc wwio


WOWIO is a publicly traded media company based in the United States. It is an online destination that provides users the ability to share and consume digital media content, such as e-comics and E-books, while providing revenue-generating opportunities for creators and publishers through advertising and merchandising programs.

Contents

WOWIO's chairman is Brian Altounian, a former Time Warner executive and board member of Platinum Studios.

Wowio and digital media moneytv with donald baillargeon


History

WOWIO was founded in 2006 in Los Angeles by "author and entrepreneur" William Lidwell. Its original goal was to provide readers with free, downloadable E-books in exchange for embedded advertisements. Initial offerings in the WOWIO catalogue included public domain titles like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, and comic book titles like the Tenth Muse series.

In June 2008, Platinum Studios announced that it had begun talks to acquire WOWIO, hoping to make it a "major cornerstone" of "a global digital publishing distribution initiative." The companies projected that the acquisition would be concluded early in the third quarter of 2008, but issues related to WOWIO's non-payment of quarterly earnings delayed the sale.

In June 2009, WOWIO was purchased outright by Brian Altounian, formerly Platinum Studios' COO (and still a Platinum Studios board member). Altounian's company Alliance Acquisitions, LLC is a minority owner, along with a group of investors; Platinum Studios no longer has any ownership stake or percentage. Third quarter earnings for 2008, calculated on a new formula more favorable to WOWIO, were eventually paid.

In June 2010, WOWIO raised $1.7 million and purchased the online community WEvolt. WEvolt, which was created by Jason Badower (a comic artist from Australia who has illustrated and colored several Heroes graphic novels) and Matt Jacobs, enables comic book artists to create and share their work with their fans. Its online platform allows creators of comics (and eventually other media) to generate revenues by participating in ad sales and other activities such as merchandising. Users can create and submit their original material for broader distribution consideration, or they can simply use the site as an aggregator of their favorite online content.

A week after its purchase of Wevolt, WOWIO acquired DrunkDuck.com from Platinum Studios. DrunkDuck was a webcomics community of mostly amateur creators mixed with some Platinum Studios-owned professional titles. At the time of its purchase by WOWIO, the DrunkDuck community claimed 95,000 subscribed users.

In the middle of August 2013 the Drunk Duck site went offline. After repeated delays, the website briefly returned in September 2013, only to soon go offline again. On October 10, 2013, the site was brought back, now rebranded as TheDuckWebcomics.com.

Titles

  • BUMP (Fangoria Comics/The Scream Factory)
  • Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Collected Best, Volume 1
  • Darkchylde
  • Day by Day (Chris Muir)
  • Dead with Dick & Jane (KS Comics)
  • Dee Snider's Strangeland: Seven Sins (Fangoria Comics/The Scream Factory)
  • Elsinore (Devil's Due Digital)
  • G.R.A.V.E. Grrrls: Destroyers of the Dead (The Scream Factory)
  • Hero Happy Hour (GeekPunk)
  • Last Blood (Blatant Comics)
  • Lullaby (Alias Comics)
  • No Need for Bushido
  • Robert Kurtzman's Beneath The Valley of The Rage (Fangoria Comics/The Scream Factory)
  • The X-Files (Devil's Due Digital)
  • References

    WOWIO Wikipedia